African-American Women: Breast Cancer More Deadly?

Oct. 28, 2012 -- African-American women may be more likely to die of breast cancer than women of other races, especially in the first few years after the diagnosis, according to new research.

As to why, there are no clear answers yet, but the emphasis on vigilant care is clear for African-American women.

"Black women were almost 50% more likely to die compared to white women within the first three years since breast cancer was diagnosed," says researcher Erica Warner, ScD, MPH, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

That higher risk of death was driven by African-American women who had estrogen receptor-positive tumors, she found. These tumors are usually more treatable than other types.

Asian women, in comparison to whites or African-Americans, had a lower risk of dying from breast cancer, she found.

Warner presented the study today at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on cancer health disparities in San Diego.

About 227,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed this year, the American Cancer Society predicts, with nearly 40,000 deaths.

Women & Breast Cancer: Ongoing Research

The overall results are not surprising, Warner says. "Other people have shown differences in survival, black compared to white," she says.

"While black women are less likely to get diagnosed with breast cancer than white women, they are more likely to die if diagnosed," she says, citing previous research.

In her study, she says, she looked more closely than some other researchers have at tumor subtypes. She found the death risk more striking among African-American women with the ER-positive tumors.

In all, Warner evaluated more than 19,000 women who got care at National Comprehensive Cancer Network centers from January 2000 though December 2007. These centers are an alliance of 21 leading cancer centers.

More than 16,000 of the women were white. Another 1,500 were African-American, more than 600 were Asian, and about 1,300 were Hispanic. All the women were diagnosed with stage I to III breast cancer.

Warner followed the women for about seven years (half were followed longer, half long).